Friday 14 October 2011

Blog Wars 2 - Time to defend the crown!

Hey all,
Quick community shout out to From the Fang, who is once again running the excellent Blog Wars 1750 40K Tournament.

You may remember that yours truly won the last one (whoot! with a PINK Dark Eldar army no lesss!)

This is the second Blog Wars tournament this year, again being held at the excellent Maelstrom Games in Mansfield. It is a fantastic facility if you've not played there before, great tables and terrain, bar, food etc...

There are 40 tickets to start with, Alex has said he will increase if it sells out compelely...HELP IT SELL OUT! The more the merrier lol!

The event is held on the 3rd December and is a ONE DAY EVENT... no hang overs to blame for crap Day 2 performance..

So, with my title to defend and feeling in a 'weakened competitive state' - entirely of my own making as I have not been playing any 40k for a while.. hmm..since end of July in fact....just what will I be taking?

Well, you MUST have a special character in your army...

Options are:
- Dark Eldar to defend their crown
- Coteaz cheese?
- Crowe cheese?
- Eldar???? for a real lol-gasm? see if I can win the tourney with them?
- SW, maybe try out Bran Redmaw?
- BA: Mephiston? Dante-wing? Mech with Corbulo thrown in? Maybe the ImmoBAlizer with Corbs chucked in?
-BT with just an Emperor's Chimp, army full of S9 missiles?
-Deathwing? Maybe in Bully's memory? (Bull left the blog a short while back... :( )

It genuinely is a tough decision.

First choice to win the tournament: Coteaz cheese
First choice for theme: Dark Eldar - The Kabal of the Pink Fuckers to defend their crown
First choice for challenge: Eldar

OK, so a bit of meat to the post.. let's look at just how quickly I can talk myself out of running Eldar!!

Eldrad - double fortune and a guide will be very useful...plus Runes of Warding are the most effective tool for stopping GK unshakeable tanks..

2 x 10 Wraithguard units, 1 with Conceal'Lock and 1 with Enhance'Lock.. The conceal units runs as the front layer of the wall and the Enhance unit enjoys cover from the unit.
Eldrad fortunes both of them.
Fuck you anything under S6 for a 4+ wound, with a 3+ reroll to save..
However, fuck me with plasma and power weapons..

3 x 5 Fire Dragons in Scatter Laser, Shuricannon Wave Serpents.
Eldrad fortunes the first of these as a 'capstone' which turbo's into aggressive position on its first turn of movement so it has a 4+ with reroll and provides cover for the others..

Then I was thinking a unit of 3 War Walkers with double Scatter Lasers which Eldrad would then guide and mess people up with an ungodly number of TL S6..

I do of course know that this army is PAP.
I do know, of course, that I would be better off taking mech eldar...and may do as Bringer has a fully meched up army that has a list of my design thatr we playtested alot a year ago or so...

I do know, of course, that I should just take ANY OTHER ARMY EVER and do better...BUT, there is a real impulse to try this out..Could I win again with this pap?

Does it have the left field, surprise element that could swing it for me? Rape me please guys, convince me this is not what I should take.. Or tell me that it COULD win... depending on match ups..

21 comments:

  1. lol, i do wonder sometimes if you and i are actually capable of taking a list that isn't min/maxed to the hilt. i intend to challenge myself to do so this time. i reckon you should try and do the same. i was even considering taking a list with no duplicate units in (not including transports) just for the hell of it.

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  2. No duplicate units sounds good.. I am up for trying that out.. but which codex best supports that? I am thinking BA, SW and IG in particular could do that very well...

    SW would struggle with troops I think. Not enough depth.. unless you went for Loganwing, but that'd just be a mess.. everywhere else, sweet.. but..it is just not efficient!

    BA can do it better inside troops.. equally well other slots..

    IG rock on the 'no duplication'... Platoon can throw out ridiculour variety..

    I wouldn't fancy running any other army for it..even GK, unless you run Coteaz..

    Dark Eldar wouldn't be too bad either..

    So, shall we establish rules?
    What is duplication then?
    The exact same unit i.e spammed MeltaVets
    OR
    Can we pick a unit such as IG Vets but equip them differently? Melta-Demo Vets for agg and Autocannon/Plasma dudes for obj home sitting..?

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  3. To be honest I think Eldar are a viable choice with all the GK around. They shut down psychic, the laugh at land raiders with wraith and lance and can put out an ungodly amount of S6.

    Add to that AV12 vehicles and I think they can be very competitive particularly against heavy mech. A guy won End Times with them and we played a couple of decent double eldar lists at the doubles.

    Anyway, cheers for the plug!

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  4. Not a chance Ven... not a chance!

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  5. i think duplication should be purely a unit use and purpose thing. a unit of meltavets with a vox would count as duplication with a unit of meltavets with a plasma pistol, but not with a unit of vets with plasma guns and the stealth doctrine, for example. again, a leman russ is not the same as a demolisher, but is the same as a leman russ with sponsons.

    basically, i feel like experimenting with the idea of redundancy of purpose rather than of individual units.

    i like this challenge, but if i agree to this you had better stick to it, i know you, you wont be able to help pushing even this framework to the limit! ;)

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  6. Don't take Deathwing - though I am honoured you make it sound like I am dead! Deathwing are "fun" but people honestly have gotten used to them, end of the day they are probably the most accessible and "user friendly" army out there, 1750 = 25 troop terminators, and either 8 bikes and belial, or another squad, belial and *insert random other unit*. People have worked out that you can just "circle the wagons and move away" and just stop the units from taking anything, kp's/objectives!

    Personally I like the "no multiples". If you look at a lot of the Back40k lists they do pretty much that to quite a lot of success, but in good environments (I.E no list stipulations)

    Both Blood Angels and Space Wolves do this nicely, maybe not taking the "1 of each" so strictly, but certainly have a solid list. Though Wolves would be various versions of Grey Hunters (big with the trimmings, small with a razor being "different")

    Though, in all fairness, if your going to "intentionally" not make a serious list, there is only one that you should do.

    Death Company.

    Design it for nothing but unadulterated brutality. Go big or go home. Throw in a single scout unit to hold an objective, looking to murder kill points.

    Bonus points for taking Lemartes bouncing behind a Rhino for comedic value.

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  7. @BroLo...is that just because you are playing or what??

    @Atreides...unit USE is a good rule.. Grey Hunters.. tough one... like Bully suggests...would it be different enough to have a 5man unit with CML WG and then a 7/8man plasma unit in a rhino, a 10 man GH CC tooled unit in a rhino? Or is that the same unit?

    Because to me, that sounds like the same unit..despite having different purposes..

    With the essential nature of troops in the game, this is hard to do for some codices, especially as the SW book only has 2 troop choices!!

    I do like the idea of just taking Death Company..but if I were to it'd be in 3 Storm Ravens (MM/PC) in groups of 8, each with 2 power weapons, 3 DC Dreads with Talons and not Lemartes, the other one...the Special Character chap with the Executioner's Axe and wings...forgotten his pissng name..

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  8. Crap, i have of course forgotten that in all likelihood NECRONS will be out...and we all know how much I love shiny, new toys!! Even better when I have a fully painted army now...add some plastics from the new releases and a SC and away we go! Whoot!

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  9. of course it is all within reason. i just don't want to see us taking anything that can be construed as a netlist. i want to see the extent to which our lists are winning the game for us, rather than our skill.

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  10. Well you raped my Nids with your Dark Eldar, its only fair that the Light Eldar get a ride too...hop on!

    Just call me after this time will you...?

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  11. I think if I went I'd do one of the follow:

    "Balanced" Death Company - Plenty of Units, maybe a LR in there though. Scouts for objective holding, maybe throw in a DC dread or two in a drop pod though.

    Some form of "Hero" Wolves - plenty of Cav, maybe a WG bomb or two.

    Blog Wars will see plenty of mech and deathstars still. I do think this time around it will be majority "strong" lists opposed to in the name of fun.

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  12. it will be ironic if it is, since i am trying to do the opposite xD

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  13. Im just gonna take something cheesy so I don't have to think cus ill be busy drinking :)

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  14. are you going? sweet! well you are included in the challenge then. if not you will be a pussy for a) not rising to the challenge and b) we will know all these wins of yours will be down to list not skill.

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  15. I may do :) Seems like a laugh. Well...unlike you all...I dont have the luxury of re designing my army off the bat
    I can only use what I have. And everything I have is for my specific armies. For example, all my wolf guard have p.fists and combi-meltas and all my special weps are meltas. All my tanks can be exchanged to razorbacks, but either las/plas or H.bolters. All my heavy weapons are rockets, all my Grey knights are stuck with psycannons etc. So even if I write a "crap" list, I cant make it :)

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  16. Maybe you all ought to put your money where your mouth is and buy a ticket :P

    Except Atreides since he's already signed up!

    Seriously though, this is exactly the sort of thing I wanted to inspire. Bit of banter, people really thinking about lists etc etc

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  17. I think the challenge is to make a good list that is very playable - maybe challenging, that can hold up to "net lists" - but are something outside the box.

    I am thinking to something like Atreides "Army in Two Waves" posts.

    I'll give 20 quid to anyone that takes this list though:


    Astorath 225

    Furioso Dread + Drop Pod (160)
    Furioso Dread + Drop Pod (160)

    15xDC w/ Jump Packs
    DC Dread - Drop Pod (w/ Homer)
    DC Dread - Drop Pod (w/ Homer)
    DC Dread - Drop Pod (w/ Homer)

    Scouts x5 (SEE I THINK ABOUT MISSIONS, RIGHT?!)

    Not sure about points, maybe a chaplin o doom might be nice in that, Lemartes even better.

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  18. @ Degree...sorry bro, I'll cuddle you and whisper some sweet nothings as we go this time! lol... How are the Nids?

    @Killswitch - this is a 'friendly' tournament, if such a thing exists (I know Adam struggled with this concept, and so do I to an extent)...so playing hardcore shit will be looked down on.. you can win running Pink armies of Doom mate.. :)

    I think the best approach is to run a themed force, but of course, play the mission and game to win...as best you can..

    You may start with a 'gimped' set of tools, but as Atreides says ...test yourself bro.

    I get what you are saying though dude, changing lists up is difficult when you've built a force to do a specific thing..

    @Fang..my associate Bringer of Death a.k.a Steve, is buying them tonight I believe.. so shut up ;)

    @Atreides - yup, Killswitch is involved in the challenge...we'll extend it as a Sons' challenge!!

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  19. @Bully... for £100 I'll take that.

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  20. Like I said, I dont mind a challenge ( I took someone else's god awful Tau to a local tourney and camee 3rd) but I simply don't have the models. I'll see what I can do :)

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  21. I think I might have taken Quad-Land Raiders!

    Psycannons? PFFT!

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